Jubab's brother Dondon is fighting for his life - please PRAY!!!

Please pray for Dondon, the middle brother of the five brothers. He is Jubab’s fun-loving, optimist, great with kids, easy-going and always smiling brother but right now he is desperately fighting for his life in the ICU of one of the biggest hospitals in Cagayan with what seems to be viral myocarditis.

He got sick on May 14^th with what appeared to be a respiratory infection with slight fever and cough, but by the 19^th, when the family came here to visit us for the weekend, he was starting to get worse and by the 21^st had to be taken to hospital where his condition has continued to deteriorate until during the weekend he was moved to ICU.

He is having severe pain attacks in his chest, his heart is swollen and he is having difficulty breathing. Nayumi, his beautiful young wife, who he married 8 months ago, (photo above) has not left his side or hardly slept for the past days. We were there on Saturday and he was hooked up to IV’s and oxygen and was looking really pale and felt clammy, although he still managed to give us one of his bright, Dondon style smiles.  

The doctors are doing all they can but his condition looks very, very serious.

Please, please take time if you will to PRAY for him. 

Dondon, 20 years old, waiting for his wedding to start.

Rollercoasters........!

Sometimes we find ourselves on a roller coaster ride of emotions living out so many different situations both with our own family and with our extended family in the Lord.  And this last 2 ½ weeks has been like this.

Two and a half weeks ago, our emotions were of joy, excitement and thankfulness as we celebrated Paul’s half a century of life – his jubilee year - and it was a beautiful celebration which started with a dawn birthday surprise pig (the pig was the breakfast) with a lot of friends and neighbors who woke Paul up at dawn with coffee, soup and singing.....and ended with a quick family trip to Manila to for a few days together. 

This was Paul’s dawn

birthday celebration

with about 70 +

neighbors and friends.

This was on April 29,

at our family birthday

dinner in Manila. 

From these happy emotions we were plunged just two evenings later into the depths of tragedy and sadness. Maybe you remember last year, in one of our February 2011 blogs, that we wrote about Mark and Aysa losing their baby at birth. They got through this difficult time – accepted this from the hand of the Lord, kept their faith and kept serving Him.  Earlier this year – on March 10 – God gave them another beautiful baby boy, Marten (for March 10) and their joy knew no bounds! All of us rejoiced with them. 

This is our precious friend Aysa on

baby Marten’s second Sunday at church.

But the tragedy happened last week

on Monday night the 7^th of May. God took

Marten’s life back with a sudden attack of

what was either asthma or maybe a

problem with his heart.

Our hearts felt like they were being wrenched out

of our bodies while we gathered around Mark and Aysa

and listened to their agonized sobs and wept with them.

And while the believers gathered together to help bury the body of this precious little baby boy, another family in the church here began their journey of grief as the Lord took our brother Kukuy Bagas, one of the bible teachers, home to be with Himself after a 6 month battle with liver cancer. So we’ve gone through two deaths in the church family here and it has been a time of great sadness.

While still reeling under this sadness, God blessed our church family here with last Saturday with a time to rejoice through the recognition and laying of hands on two new elders in the church of Colawingon. This five year old church plant has been done by the group effort of many of the bible teachers - even Kukuy Bagas had a part - but one who has had perhaps the greater part in the church planting effort is Ronnie Hanginan, one of the elders from the Lapoc Church. So in the midst of celebration, in the midst of tragedy and death and in the midst of the church leadership being raised up..........Christ’s body here in the Lapoc area continue in the faith and continue glorifying Him.